Sentiments
by reminiscent-afterthought
Summary: Postfic. Bonds fashioned hardly ever break, however discretely they originally form. A reencounter in their original meeting place, shows a new angle to a particular bond, with a third spirit watching overhead. For Nietzsche's Itch.


**Author's Notes**

I'll admit I haven't watched the seasons of Yu Gi Oh in its entirety, so my grasp on the characters are far from perfect. Kaiba however is a confusing one, with the differences between the Japanese and English adaptions, especially to aspects regarding his take on magic. To my knowledge, he is more accepting towards the end in that regard than the English Version, in which he claims that "Maybe there is some truth to this junk" only to immediately deny it afterward. Destiny however, I'm not convinced he ever truly accepts that he has to choice over the governing of his own life, and I cannot imagine him doing so. So that's the basis I have taken for this fic.

I've also gathered that he is quite lonely throughout the series, and also that he's one of those people who find great difficulty in changing. So despite his 'warming' for lack of a better word towards the end, he still can't consider Yugi and the gang real 'friends', mostly because his pride and their previous encounters stop him from fully doing do. But that depends on your definition of friendship as well.

Another confusing point is Ishizu's name in the Japanese version. I've seen her named both Ishizu and Isis in the sub, while only Ishizu in the English dub, so for simplicity's sake, I've gone with Ishizu.

There is trustshipping (Seto/Ishizu) in this fic, though it is slight (you could probably see it if you squint).

_**Dedication**_: This fic is written for Nietzsche's Itch.

_**Disclaimer**_: Yu Gi Oh and its characters are the property of Kazuki Takahashi I believe. And as such, I own nothing save the actual story.

Enjoy, and please save me the grief of a black mark. Unless you think my page is too white.

* * *

**Sentiments**

Postfic. Bonds fashioned hardly ever break, however discretely they originally form. A reencounter in their original meeting place, shows a new angle to a particular bond, with a third spirit watching overhead.

Seto K & Ishizu I

* * *

'So it's done?'

Kaiba Seto turned slightly, retrieving his gaze from the window off the top floor of the building within which he stood, turning instead to focus them on his younger brother.

Mokuba nodded, well used to his brother and thus aware enough not to take the apathetic tone bordering on annoyance to heart. It was, in any case, less harsh than what outsiders received; buried under the icy exterior was a soft spot for his family...and his friends, though Seto himself would not care to admit that.

He returned his gaze back to the window, looking out from the glass dome like a being trapped within the globe, doomed to forever watch the outer world as an outsider, as he very well may be. He was a rare soul, and his frosty exterior made hardly an attraction for company beyond the business level.

Except of course where several other _misfits_ were concerned.

Not that he really cared. _Really._

Why would he? Of Motou Yugi, the Game King he had failed to supplant, of his faithful friends which he envied and denied himself that envy in conjunction, of his grandfather...no, not his grandfather. He had Mokuba. But everything else...he couldn't eternally deny.

'I'm going out,' he said abruptly.

'Stop by the museum on your way back,' his brother replied, with a slightly mysterious air. 'There is something there that will interest you. You'll find out what,' he added, catching the look he received.

'I'll take that into consideration,' Kaiba responded icily, after a short pause, before shrugging on his coat and walking out with his briefcase in hand.

Mokuba laughed a little at his brother's attitude. From Kaiba Seto, that usually meant a 'yes'.

* * *

He found himself facing the familiar door an hour later. As reluctant he was to admit it, he was curious to his brother's cryptic request. But it hadn't been Mokuba's words which had called him there; it was almost as though he felt someone, or something else, calling him.

And if he had watched the news recently, he would have known what. As it was, he had been absorbed in other mundane matters, which is why it was a surprise (well disguised) as the doors opened to reveal Ishizu Ishtar.

She smiled, rather maddeningly in his opinion, before turning. 'Follow me,' she said, leading him down the same path they had trodden years before.

And again, feeling the pull of destiny while simultaneously rejecting it, he followed.

To find himself face to face with the stone tablets that had carved their history and given him Obelisk.

The Priestess turned. 'Well met,' she said in fluent Japanese. I knew that you would come again today.'

'Spare me your fairytales,' he said flatly, turning his back to the Egyptian. 'I had enough of that the last time.'

'Still not a believer of destiny?' Ishizu asked in her usual soft tone.

'I told you once before, _I_ choose what I will do, and when I will do it.'

'And yet you still came,' she wondered aloud.

'What makes you think it was any less than my choosing? And your hocus pocus fell through the roof during our duel. If I remember correctly, you claimed Obelisk would return to you.'

'Indeed I did,' she mused. 'And yet you bested me. A valid point. But while seeing the future has its fallibilities, which I do not pretend to deny, the paths themselves are set.'

'Prove it.'

She moved closer to him. 'Disprove it.' She took a step closer still, gesturing to the massive stone tablets that loomed before them. 'I've showed you the past, and their truth. You've seen it yourself, and you would still deny it?'

He was quickly becoming aggravated with the situation. 'I do not deny destiny. I simply deny the lack of choice in it.'

'Whoever said they could not be one and the same?'

That question struck home. It was simply something he couldn't accept; that his choices were simply strung on the string of someone greater. That he was powerless to prevent it.

A scowl wormed its way onto his face. 'I've had enough of this since before I walked in here.'

'Then why do you remain? Why have you not left? Or better yet, why did you come?'

He was stumped into silence.

The distance between them was minimal now, and rather uncomfortable for the Japanese man. 'You're here for the same reason I am,' she answered herself, while seeing he would not grace her for such. 'Fate has called us to our meeting place again. Such ties are not accidental, you know.'

He fixed her with a hard stare. 'I am not unacquainted with the ploys of a woman,' he stated.

'You are however of your own,' she countered, and it was true.

Then she withdrew, leaving the air astride a shade colder as she retreated, leaving the other behind. 'What you chose and what has been chosen are one and the same,' she stated. 'Is that so difficult an idea to fathom?'

Then she turned and walked of, in her graceful way.

'There will be a public display tomorrow, if you're interested,' she called back to him, before disappearing around a corner.

He thought about that for a moment. Maybe he would return.

Not that it meant anything, to him.

He looked up suddenly. For a moment, it had felt like someone had been staring at him in amusement.

But he ignored it and ascended himself. As such, he missed the grin on Obelisk's face as the tablets remained past the shutting door.


End file.
